Issue date: 7/21/03 Section: Opinion

Somewhere in the arid American Southwest is an imaginary line -- clearly evident on a map, but obscure and indistinguishable among the dirt and rocks of the New Mexico or Arizona desert. However vague or lucid the line is, across it straddle two distinct cultures. In the United States, there are freedom and prosperity, which must seem tempting and taunting compared to the despair and desolation found to the south in Mexico. But as thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants slip across the line and venture north, they fail to realize the consequences of unlawfully living and working in the United States -- consequences harmful to immigrants and the U.S. economy.

According to the University of Texas, more than 40 percent of Mexicans make $2 a day in Mexico; in the United States, they can make 20 times that. For thousands, the potential sacrifice in braving the desert is worth it. The Houston Chronicle reports that each year, Mexican immigrants send back half their earnings -- an estimated $200 million -- to their families in Mexico. This is money pumped right out of the U.S. economy, and while this money may keep immigrants' families alive, it it comes with disastrous fiscal repercussions.

The consequences of illegal immigration have distinctive economic overtones detrimental to the United States. The health care system of Los Angeles County, for example, provides medical services for the poor. According to the Los Angeles Times, 32 percent of its patients are illegal immigrants from Mexico. Millions of U.S. tax dollars are spent each year to take care of adults and children who are not supposed to be in the United States to begin with. This is the price of illegal immigration. The county is strapped for money, yet according to the Times, an immigrant with less than a high school education -- this being the majority of these immigrants -- drains the economy of $13,000 during his lifetime. There are an estimated 1.1 million illegal immigrants in L.A. county alone.

What lies at the heart of illegal immigration, however, is the philosophy of the immigrant. Unlike legal immigrants who come to the United States each year, illegal immigrants want little part of U.S. culture. The fact is, illegal immigrants want to work in the United States so their families in Mexico can live. They simply exploit the U.S. job market.

There is a sharply divergent mindset between legal and illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants who come to the United States from all over the world (including Mexico), come with one thing in mind -- to become a U.S. citizen. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America saw a great rise of legal immigration. Whole families boarded steamboats to forge new lives as U.S. citizens. They did not shrug off their culture or individuality; rather, they sought to mold a new identity, mingling their home country with the new one. This is not the case with the thousands of illegals who venture into the United States each week simply for profit.

Today, instead of the massive influx of Italians and Irish, the United States sees an increasing number of Mexicans who do the equivalent of what their aforementioned European counterparts did near the turn of the century. The difference, however, is that the Irish and Italians built upon their generations -- enabling their families to move up the social and economic hierarchy. They did so out of a desire to incorporate themselves with U.S. culture. Right or wrong, many illegal immigrants from Mexico are failing to mimic this pattern. They only want a paying job and the United States offers this.

While this time bomb of illegal immigration ticks evermore obnoxiously, little political action is taken. Both political parties covet the Hispanic vote. The Democratic Party has no reason to decrease the fervor with which it supports immigration, illegal or otherwise, when it is coupled with a potential increase in Democratic voters. Similarly, the Republican Party seems to believe that its support is growing among Hispanic voters and any move against "their people" would have political ramifications.

Sadly, illegal immigration perpetually cycles itself. The dependence of the families in Mexico on those in America is crippling. Not only is the family unit broken, but when their labor in the north is exploited to the point of exhaustion, they return home with no savings and no means with which to support themselves.

The imaginary line in the American Southwest presents the illusion of hope. The shining cars in the magazines and the bright lights that can be seen from their town all scream opportunity. And for those who come legally with the desire to start a new life, it provides an opportunity that is unrivaled by any other nation. However, for the illegal, the desert, with its rocks and dirt, offers a mirage on the horizon and little real future.

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